A. Prefatory:
Cover, title fly, title page, letter of authorization, letter of acceptance, letter of transmittal, table of contents, list of illustrations, abstract/synopsis or an executive summary.
An abstract is usually written in a single paragraph. It includes a summary of what is written in the whole report/its organization.
B. prefactory/text:
1.0 Introduction, is a section that prepares the reader for the body of the report. It includes a brief;
1.1 Background, information the reader may need to understand
1.2 The statement of purpose/problem
1.3 Specific objective(s) of the report
1.4 Significance of the problem
1.5 Scope of the report
1.6 Limitations of the report and
1.7 Definitions of terms.
The elements appear in the chronological order as shown above.
Body includes:
2.0 Methods and approaches used to collect data
3.0 Results of the report
4.0 Analysis and discussion of the potential courses of action s(may include advantages and disadvantages, costs and benefits of a particular course of action, methods and approaches
used).
5.0 Conclusion and
6.0 Recommendations
Recommendation is part of the report which suggests a course of action to be taken in a course of
time.
This part includes:
• Appendices: May be copies of interview questions or questionnaires used in collecting data, extra pictures or photographs.
• Reference/ bibliography: Other important things to understand about business reports.
Note to take;
i. A descriptive abstract is a type of an abstract that tell what is in the report, but it does
not offer any conclusions or information about the findings.
ii. An executive summary is a summary that gives the reader a general overview of the whole report without having to read the whole report.
iii. An Informative abstract/synopsis is the one that presents main points of the report in the order in which they appear in the text.
iv. Formal reports are written in the past tense and third person using reported speech
v. Another name for abstract is synopsis.